Shock Value
by Kuro49
Summary: Slight RK with A on the sidelines. The value of shock only comes into play when they least expect it. So who was the sickest one? You have three choices, red, black or white.


Not quite sure whether this piece was to portray the love, hate, friendship or something just distinct between Rabi and Kanda. Don't ask why but throwing Allen into the mess was just too much fun, he seemed to be the only sane one. (But I swear he is the real devil in this all.) I don't own as always. :P

XXX

**Shock Value**

XXX

He smashed a lamp with the help of the wall, gray paint peeling off from the lack of care like a snake shedding its skin. _Disgustingly intriguing_. He watched the little pieces of glass and shattered plastic, sharp and dangerous lying on the wooden floorboards. His eyes were blue slits, framed by coal black lashes. The whites of his eyes were crawling with tiny red veins; he was practically willing the lamp to piece itself back together.

Too bad he didn't know magic.

It would have been so much more convenient if he did though. But he didn't and the wire still laid on the ground like a snake with its head cut off as soon as it was ripped from the wall's plug when his anger finally bubbled over the rim. Spilling the feverish emotions to sizzle at the burning stove as the metal changed from silver to a hot red. He saw steam rising, quiet pants as his heart slowed down.

000

They were painfully in control.

Of **him **and _him_.

To the point where they just wanted to throw up at the sight of each other.

Their feelings were toying with them like a puppet hanging from strings, dangling, limbs loose and mind lost as they gave another twirl around the stage. It was affectionate the way they broke each other apart, tore away the flesh to take a glimpse inside.

Kind of tasteful if I had a say in it.

But I don't and in the end, the puppeteers controlling them were actually just themselves.

Terribly ironic, _I know_.

000

He rolled over at the sound of something breaking, _was it expensive?_ It was only an initial response. Gravity liked to play pranks and so it took up its work as soon as he rolled over on the bed. The sheets curled around his legs and he was left tangled in white. And then he fell through the short distance between the edge of the bed to contact the hard cold ground. 'Ouch' was the last thing on his mind as his head slammed against the floorboards, a hollow sound and then an obscure curse.

The pain just helped to wake him up.

He saw the world slanted, dark but definitely slanted. His head hurts a lot, but he was all right to the extent of someone slamming their head against the wall could get. He reached up, feeling along his head to ensure nothing too damaging had happened. He touched warm liquid copper. And then he rested his head against the floorboards again before resuming his sleep. _He won't die._

000

Allen knocked on the door.

No one answered it until the fifth knock and then it was pulled open, yanked was more appropriate if you are really into the details and whatnot. His gloved hand was still raised in mid-knock when the wooden surface disappeared. Stringy black hair dripped from an Oriental face, twisted in a manner that screamed for anyone to back off.

"Screw off, bean sprout." Four words fell from the tongue.

Allen rolled his eyes but swallowed the insult that has already formed in his mouth. Because it was early and even Kanda had bad mornings, if not worst than most people.

"Komui has a mission for us, Kanda."

"You…?"

"And Rabi too if that makes you feel any better." Allen bit back the smirk that tugged painfully at his lips.

"Fuck you, fuck Komui and most of all fuck the rabbit." The door closed and Allen knew that he would see the grumpy Japanese in Komui's office in less than half an hour. He brushed off the fact that Rabi was directed with the most hate, perhaps it was just his interpretations. But he also noticed the glistening of what seemed to be broken glass on the floor when the lock clicked into place. Whatever, it was Kanda, and that _was_ more than the explanation really needed.

Next room.

Allen knocked loudly, hoping this one would be easier than the last. No one replied after the 10th knock and no one responded even after the 20th, but by then the knocks had turned into poundings.

Allen gave a kick at the door. "Rabi!"

Gave another kick and it seemed that the door had finally took enough beatings before it swung open, splinters of wood at the edges where Allen's boot gave into contact with the surface.

He blinked, cursed eye or normal eye, he blinked.

Rabi raised his head, feeling one side of his face abnormally sticky.

"Hey… Allen…?" He squinted in the sunlight as he slowly sat up, tugging his limbs to wake up along with the recollection of his thoughts. "Morning already…?"

"You are bleeding."

Allen pointed at the red head as he pulled himself up to a sitting position. Rabi touched the side of his face and sure enough it was still wet with fresh blood. Allen walked into the connected bathroom, wondering what he has done for God to give him such a chore. Taking a fresh towel, he wrung it wet with water before clicking the lights off. He tossed the wet slob at the red head and watched with mild boredom as he cleaned up the bloody mess.

"And I won't even ask." He muttered with a flick of his head, the white strand that tickled his cheek was flipped to the side.

He watched as Rabi's lips pulled into a sheepish grin.

000

"Come in you two, I will give you a briefing on the mission."

Kanda was already sitting in the room when they opened the door to Komui's office. Komui grinned from behind his desk and gestured for them to come in. The papers loomed and threaten to fall right on them as Allen and Rabi made their way carefully through the paper jungles. They expertly navigated through the mess to avoid any unnecessary papercuts.

"All three of you have different missions."

None of them exchanged a word. Rabi took a seat and then Allen followed, but just when he touched the surface of the couch he caught sight of a rather nasty glare that was sent Rabi's way.

Maybe it was just Kanda's prissy mood acting up again.

But the grin that Rabi gave the other in return was unsettling even as Allen directed his focus back to Komui.

"They are just in the same direction."

Rabi pressed the tissue to his head, wincing as his fingernail just touched the edge of the wound. It hurts like hell and Kanda's elbow that accidentally _kept on_ slamming between his ribs was not helping one bit.

"Cut it out!" He hissed, attempting to hush his voice down as so he didn't interrupt Komui but he could no longer bother with trying to conceal the annoyance on his face.

He was replied with an elbow to the stomach.

"So you three will take the same train there before separating for your individual missions."

Allen listened as he picked at the hemming of his shirt. He heard the sharp whispered arguments and the sudden gasp of breath whenever Kanda landed another physical insult on Rabi's quickly deflating defensive mechanism. He clearly knew the other two weren't listening, rather they were fighting an on going battle that has chipped at Kanda's ice cold exterior and even worn down if just by a little, Rabi's seemingly perfect mask.

"Okay?"

But before any of them had replied Komui already shoved the three out the door (ignoring Kanda's flaying Mugen and Rabi's shouts of pain).

He gave them one last smile, glasses glinting unstably in front of caffeine intoxicated eyes. "Bye!"

And then the door closed, a light breeze made their hair of white, red and black ruffle. Allen had a resolution and also a steadily growing hatred for doors, as they never brought good signs. And really you couldn't blame him.

Their hands tightened on the same dully colored folders.

000

"Your mission has level 3s, are you sure you'll be alright?" Allen asked as he skimmed through the different folders. The train gave a little obscured movement on the tracks, and if you listened closely you could hear the small pebbles bouncing off the metal.

"You think I can't handle it?"

"Yuu has done much harder work and came back with barely a scratch." Rabi leaned back into the seat, glancing over at Allen before resting his eye on Kanda. "He always has such smooth skin though."

Allen didn't understand the sudden plunge in temperature, as disturbing as that sentence was, it was Rabi after all and whether he meant it in a sexual content, you really shouldn't be surprised by now. But it seemed as though someone had just poured ice water all over him. He felt drenched and cold; a chill crawled up his spine at the sound of Rabi's next words.

"I would do _anything_ to see Yuu with a scar or something."

But then the calm laughter that spilled over made it as though that bucket of cold water had been reversed like the rewind of a funny video.

It made Allen's skin crawl at the change of behavior.

It just shouldn't work out like that.

Unfortunately it still did.

"Really?" Kanda's reply was calm and collected, as if he didn't feel surprised at the sentence that has spewed from the red head. And then he spat out the last word in a manner Allen had never heard before; it was frightfully calm, definitely worst than his usual flaring tempers. This was like the silence before the storm, the last second before the bomb completed the count down. It was unnerving to say the least.

"Too bad I don't need to do much to see you in pain."

And then Mugen's hilt contacted Rabi's head, hitting him square in the wound from this morning's little fall-out-of-bed accident.

Let's just say the result wasn't all that pretty… or civil in any sense.

000

"We split here."

Midday, the train finally arrived, trailing a cloud of dust and sand. The sun was high up in the sky and the air was musty, busy and it smelt of heavy perfume attempting to cover up sweat. The alluring glow of sunshine on top of the heavy silence rarely broken up by crickets and their lazy croaks of sore throats.

The heat waves that made their eyes squint and their head spin slowly.

Rabi scratched the skin behind his ear, eye trailing along the signs around the station, following the words, fingering the letters to find their desired exit. He was staying in town, Allen was going to a bit North of here and Yuu was heading to the small town near by. He caught the name of the next town, read it over, memorized the form and he confirmed it in his mind, comparing it with the jumbo of English on the folders Komui gave them.

Kanda's veins pulsed with irritation, like hot water it boiled within him, slithering through blood and bones. His so called companions, the sole purpose of the mission, the hot climate that made his uniform cling uncomfortably to his skin. It was all so annoyingly irritating; his grip took comfort in the cool metal of Mugen's handle but his temper was far from easy going.

And Allen shifted from foot to foot, from red to black, from dark waters to cropped flames. They were taller then him, by a head at least. His gray eyes caught sight of a flurry of information going through Rabi's eye, he always wondered what was beneath that black eye patch, but it may have been rude. He saw the annoyance in Kanda's eyes, who knew Orientals had blue irises but then again everyone at the Order was like a blind man playing a game of mix and match.

And then everything went downhill from there.

First it was just the familiar name calling.

"Yuu!"

"I am leaving." (Surprisingly he didn't retort about the particular use of his first name.)

"So soon?"

A mission folder was waved in the air, indicating that he did indeed had work to do.

"See you then."

"Fuck off."

"But when I do you will miss me because you won't have anyone to torture."

"How did you know?"

"Because I feel the same way too, _Yuu-chan_." The grin was still in place but somehow Allen found it to be a cracking mask.

"Che, you make it sound like a confession." Kanda's eyes were lidded from the sun.

"It probably is." Rabi's grin lazily stretched wider.

Allen didn't know if this was their personal way of saying take care and be careful. He just took a step back and watched the exchange, but something from deep within his minds, the darkest corners where Cross has long since branded his name across, he thought their words should be taken literally.

And then it was an explosion.

They turned their heads, the first word that came up to Allen's head was: fire crackers. But his eye started to whirl into life, the mechanical gears snapping into place. They watched as a building at the edge of town crumpled into a heap of rocks and cement.

"Guess we better go that way first."

Rabi pointed to the 'exit' sign with a shrug to his shoulders.

The Akumas attacked and they left their original destination at the back of their minds.

000

Fall. Fall. Fall.

Plummet to the ground with a splat.

_Please, Yuu?_

Rabi watched him fight. He wanted to see the disappointment of failure, the slip right before a fall. The flaw in what he took as pride, the hole in the wall. The dispersing pill in the cup, _the wilting flower in the hourglass_.

His lips contorted into a twist of a smile.

Beyond amused, maybe to the point of messy obsession.

But he won't get carried away, the letters would stretch their inky limbs and pull him back into the safety of a closed log where he could intoxicate in the smell of yellowing paper. And then he could have a talk with A or a chat with the letter Z, a cup of tea with R and a handshake with K. Better yet; he could listen to the ancient tales from T. But where were they when he missed them the most?

At the back of his mind where Rabi locked them in a confined cage and poured a velvet cover to silence their appealing catcalls.

He felt that eye, green like a neon light blinking in the dark. He could feel it behind those Akuma shells decorated with black pentacles, and the guns that aimed for the center of his head. Bullets flew like sharpened knifes, grazing just lightly at his skin. The tattoo absorbed it like a jellyfish, spreading its tentacles across his chest, tasting the poison before licking its lips with a smack.

Mugen went slash, cackling with innocence spread over its bell like voice. Blood dripped, slick and red, he saw it all in slow motion as he pivoted on the ankle of his foot. Blue eyes narrowed in annoyance until the final one was down.

Fall. Fall. Fall.

Just stand back up before anyone can even blink.

_Fuck you, Rabi._

000

Allen saw all that from the sidelines where he battled the stray Akumas that Kanda did not cared much for. He saw that contorted smile on Rabi's face, the narrowing of aware blue eyes. It was twisted, thoroughly twisted. He could practically sense the unhealthy threat these two posed to the other. He saw the glint that wished death to the foul sword wielder and he saw the dare calling out to the other to bring him down.

Perhaps these were one of the many dark little secrets among the habitants of the members in the Black Order. (Along those 80 percent were Komui's behind-the-doors experiments.)

Allen's invocated arm returned to normal and really he wasn't surprised, a little taken back because he thought they wouldn't and couldn't take it so far. But there were so many times when he was proven wrong and this is the last straw that he needed to prove that Kanda and Rabi were sick.

Rotting from their very core. Just _sick, sick, sick._

And he slowly made his way back, sensing the taunting atmosphere that fell heavy on the used to be battleground. He brushed a white lock out of his eyes, flexed the muscles of his arms and walked back to the red head sitting on the ground with the Finder lying next to him. And he watched, just out of curiosity now.

Rabi's smile widened into a grin as soon as Kanda stopped fighting, he was trying, desperately to hide the disappointment from his face.

"Is he dead?"

"Nope."

"And before you ask, he isn't going to die anytime soon either."

Rabi lifted the Finder from the sandy ground, tossing him over his shoulders like his hammer, weightless and formless, just another mindless word he had in his dictionary. He gave a charming smile back at the Japanese before turning to walk. Kanda scoffed, sheathing back Mugen before watching the spread of a substance darker than black leak along the curve of Rabi's thigh. His lips curled into a satisfied smirk, happily content as Rabi got what he supposedly deserved.

"Let's go, Moyashi."

Allen didn't know which one of the two was calling him; he just knew that he wasn't part of their twisted little relationship with traps crawling along every step they took. And as an onlooker he just walked to the side to see the display of what could be human nature at work.

"The name is Allen!"

And the Finder was brought to the hospital where the three of them finally parted ways.

000

Allen arrived at a tiny little village, north of where he had just been a few hours ago.

He sensed a silent stench of cover up, deadly gears that winded up behind the alleyways. He started to walk, not minding the silence that the absence of his two fellow exorcists created.

It gave him time to think, a few days at most for him to gather some conclusions.

Their relationship left him curious, too bad curiosity killed the cat.

But no worries, he was no cat.

He was just another exorcist, dressed in black and white. Trying to slay the demons and defeat the Earl in the process, nothing really too special. But the name, the prophecy and that curse he was ridden with pulled him back from being the 'nothing too special.'

And then he passed down another quiet street, unaware until their gears snapped into place. The lid of the garbage can clattered to the ground, he turned to the side.

His eyes blinked at the darkened alley. The sky was a mesmerizing blue as his left eye activated, his innocence invocated and exorcism was only starting. Too bad there may not be enough time for him to watch the clouds and think it over.

And perhaps even find a conclusion somewhere up there but then that was already wishful thinking.

000

The snake breathed fire at the skies.

Tasting the metal and despair that the Akumas were made of. It tasted bitter and it spat out black charcoal of ashes, their remains, their leftovers, their ticket to a long due freedom.

Rabi reached up and readjusted the headband on his head; lips pulling into a satisfied grin as the last of the Akumas were finished off. He stared around, some of the cobblestones that laid out the road were cracked, from force, from fire or from the damaged combined, he did not care.

He just noted the small pounding of a headache from the wound he had gotten that night.

And the sharp pain of the cut from three days ago, the fight that notified him of the situation in this town.

The cut that Yuu had obvious noticed.

His grin died down just a bit at that.

He didn't like the satisfaction that Yuu got when he was the one to get hurt, the worst the condition the wider that pair of thin lips pulled into the opposite directions. He was pretty sure that the Japanese was resting at the motel while he was slaving out here.

It just never occurred to Yuu that helping was a nice thing to do.

Rabi ran a hand in his hair and was ready to head back; maybe he could get Yuu to flare up because that bloody dress shirt was hard to hide.

000

He spat at the ground, disliking the taste of copper. His spine reformed itself as he stared up at the sky. It was blue and he wanted to kill something for the Akuma that made him go through the annoyingly agonizing process of a healing spine.

The level threes weren't hard to defeat, just took a few more hits, a few more cuts, a few more sessions of bleeding his heart dry. But he wasn't dead, far from it. His curse made his chest ache as it messily ate away at the wounds on his body.

He lay flat on the ground and stared up at the sky, dreading the hints that his goddamn white dress would scream when he follows the trail straight out of this dreadful little town. The town's people were nice, too nice for his taste as they were practically swooning over the cross on his chest.

Komui always never gave him a place where people welcomed the exorcists, most of the places he arrived to frowned upon them almost like they were the demons that were ruining their lives.

Komui knew that Kanda didn't mind the lack of welcome.

But that often led to the fact that he had to communicate with the Finders or even his fellow exorcists for something as foreign as companions.

That word tasted even worst than the dry blood on his lips.

He sat up and gave a roll of his shoulders, sheathed Mugen and started to head back. It seemed that this mission would be completed two days earlier than expected.

One last thing, he still had to think of a way to get rid of the shirt before he arrived back to where Rabi was staying.

000

They met up at the station in four days.

Boarded the train and sat down in the similar looking compartment.

And not even two minutes into the sitting down, it started. Although this time, surprisingly it wasn't Rabi, but Kanda. He opened his mouth as he leaned Mugen against the wall.

"You make me sick."

Nobody knew where it came from, maybe it was only Allen who was left out of the light or maybe it was just a too well kept secret between the other two. And then he leaned in his seat, resting the back of his head against the red fabric. Rabi gave a laugh, stifled his silent retort of: _'that makes two then.'_ But Allen caught it, unwillingly because the youngest of the three knew it would be best if he knew less.

The more he knew, the more dangerous his position was.

But somehow he couldn't tear his eyes off the creepy quirk of Rabi's lips beneath that grin. "So how was your mission, Yuu?" The small talk clicked into place, Rabi leaned against the window, the side of his face pressed to the glass, a lazy grin stretched across his easily curled lips. Kanda narrowed his eyes before reaching out to pick Mugen back from the ground.

Then the make-belief taunting began.

Allen glanced down at his watch, watching as the second hand ticked, counting the seconds turn into minutes before the water boiled over. Shouts of threats, shiny dangerous swords were pulled out, mocking teases of masculinity and definitely the sound of something breaking.

Like a glass window, perhaps?

Half an hour into the ride and they had moved into another compartment. (Must be a record? Then you haven't traveled with Rabi and Kanda enough.)

Rabi brushed at the cut on his cheek, feeling the beads of blood smear across the back of his hand. "Why do you always drag violence into things?"

"You aren't much better…" Kanda muttered with a small sneer as he closed his eyes, rubbing at his wrists where bruises formed.

The little scuffle they had weren't just blade against hammer, it was more like low blows and fists, along with plenty of dirty jokes on Rabi's part, which fueled the levels of annoyance from Kanda. Their tolerance towards each other always wore thin but to Allen's surprise it never wore through. But in the end, they were just making this more difficult than it really needed to be.

Allen crossed his arms over his chest, rolling his gray eyes in mild amusement.

"Childish antics really fit you idiots."

A simple phrase that made everything clicked into place. He flipped a lock of white from his forehead as he waited, just a little interested at how the other two would react. After all it was like solving an annoyingly confusing math question, only to find out that the answer was 0 all along.

It only made you want to break something.

Kanda snapped his eyes open, Rabi turned to stare like a fish out of the water, and Allen just let that innocent smile slide into place.

XXX Kuro

This piece is one of the longer ones I have written in a while, and its a slight shallow RK with too much hate on the side too! XDDD Aren't you proud?? -shines- I just realized this fic started out as a little dark and ended up with this ironic vibe to it. But it was just over the top fun for me to write :D Review if you liked RK with A?


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